Back in January, KSBY told you about the potential cut of transitional kindergarten, or TK, to help solve the San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s budget deficit.
Since then, TK was taken off the chopping block, but it did spark conversations on how to get state funding for it.
Now, an assembly bill is working to try to get funding for TK programs across the state.
"It's the most wonderful, joyful experience possible to have this opportunity to work with students every day, their first experience in public school," said Fiona Lloyd-Moffett, who teaches TK at Hawthorne Elementary School. "And to create an environment where they feel safe, loved, nurtured."
Lloyd-Moffett said TK provides children the opportunity to learn fully through play, song, music, dance and to build their social and academic skills through joyful hands-on learning.
She was one of the people pushing to save TK, and remembers how shocked she was to see it on the chopping block.
"I couldn't stop crying," said Lloyd-Moffett. "I couldn't believe that we were going to take this opportunity away. This chance to give children access to early education."
The district found other solutions to its budget deficit, but protecting TK long-term remained top of mind for the community.
Next week, assemblymember Dawn Addis will present her bill, AB 1391, to the state assembly for consideration.
"It is a bill that creates equity for every single one of California's 4-year-olds by providing early learning," said Addis.
Currently, the state does not provide funding for TK in the San Luis Coastal district because it is a basic aid district, which means funding comes from local property taxes.
District superintendent Eric Prater says this isn't fair.
"If you're going to call it universal TK, then you should fund it universally," said Prater, "regardless of a child's zip code."
Lloyd-Moffett says she wants the state to remember how important it is to shape little minds.
"I want them to understand that when California introduced this mandate and said we are going to provide a year of school for every single 4-year-old, that was the most amazing gift," she said. "For California to invest in our children is life-changing, and we are so grateful for that mandate, and I have to think they don't fully understand that we can't implement that mandate and make it truly universal unless the state helps fund it."
